Apple CEO Tim Cook met with head of China Mobile to again discuss potential deal

Tim Cook's trip to China included a visit with the head of the largest carrier in the world, China Mobile, as Apple's chief executive continues to work toward a potential partnership.

Apple is rumored to launch a new plastic iPhone this year.

The meeting between Cook and China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua took place in Beijing, and was confirmed by the carrier to Reuters. The two sides met to discuss "matters of cooperation," but no other details were provided.

Industry watchers have been awaiting a potential deal between Apple and China Mobile for some time. Cook most recently met with China Mobile in January, but the carrier still has yet to offer the iPhone.

Currently, the iPhone is available on carriers China Unicom and China Telecom. China Mobile was said to have 15 million unofficial iPhone users on its network as of March of 2012.

China Mobile hosts a whopping 715 million subscribers, but only about 13 percent of those are on high-speed 3G networks. The carrier hopes to rectify that by investing $6.7 billion to build out its 4G technology, while it's been speculated that Qualcomm's latest LTE chips could allow Apple to have true global high-speed data support for carriers like China Mobile with its next iPhone update.

On his current trip to China, Cook also met with carrier China Telecom, it was revealed earlier this week. With Apple rumored to be planning to release a new entry-level plastic iPhone in the coming months, observers have speculated that device could have been a key point of discussion between the two companies.

It's a standoff of who will cave first. Will Apple let China Mobile have their way and brand the phone physically and with software just to get the extra sales or will China Mobile let Apple control what's on the phone.

It's a standoff of who will cave first. Will Apple let China Mobile have their way and brand the phone physically and with software just to get the extra sales or will China Mobile let Apple control what's on the phone.

Apple will never let any carrier mess with iOS because if they do allow one then others will start asking for similar deals it's just not how Apple works.

Apple will never let any carrier mess with iOS because if they do allow one then others will start asking for similar deals it's just not how Apple works.

In the old days, a company would usually spin off a different brandname for cases like this.

That way, they could have both premium and non-premium models, which were often similar underneath.

Like Cadillac/Chevrolet. Lincoln/Ford. Or how people viewed Panasonic equipment as superior to Radio Shack gear, even though they were the same boards inside. Or all the competing breakfast cereal brands that are actually owned by the same conglomerate. So many examples out there.

In this case, the subbrand could have carrier customization, without destroying the premium line.

Perhaps Apple could sell the lower priced stuff under the "Pear" brand like on Nick :)

Apple will never let any carrier mess with iOS because if they do allow one then others will start asking for similar deals it's just not how Apple works.

They could allowed carriers to have a folder of apps on the first page. No big deal imo and it could actually be usefull. Apple just have to limit it to one folder and a giving maximum amount of mb of space. They could also allow to have carriers specific background image by defaults. All those things can be easely changed by the user once he gets is phone.

Given that this dance has been going on for at least four years now with no visible movement forward, I am getting less and less hopeful.

imo it was block by the carriers tech. Should be solved now with new phones. Its the same thing here, some carriers are using 4g towers that are incompatible with the iphone and force it to fall back to 3g or even 2g

They could allowed carriers to have a folder of apps on the first page. No big deal imo and it could actually be usefull. Apple just have to limit it to one folder and a giving maximum amount of mb of space. Like I said before, I dont like how Apple is handling the carriers...

Hmm...that's the last thing I want on my phone. I want my carrier to be just like my ISP. Basically invisible.

I understand some people wants that. You can then just delete the folder or move it to the last page. imo everyone should at least keep the app that gives youre usage and billing information.

But I don't want carrier apps pre installed on my phone. Put it in the AppStore and let me download it if I want. One of the reasons I chose iPhone is because Apple doesn't bend over for the carriers the way Motorola and other Android OEM's do.

imo it was block by the carriers tech. Should be solved now with new phones. Its the same thing here, some carriers are using 4g towers that are incompatible with the iphone and force it to fall back to 3g or even 2g

That's what I was thinking, I was also thinking iOS may be a little too private for China's government's comfort zone

But I don't want carrier apps pre installed on my phone. Put it in the AppStore and let me download it if I want. One of the reasons I chose iPhone is because Apple doesn't bend over for the carriers the way Motorola and other Android OEM's do.

Everybody bends over the carriers in one way or another.

Apple crippled iPhones for years by bending over to AT&T's desires to keep high bandwidth apps off 3G, and locking them to WiFi only.

As for carrier installed apps, I don't care as long as I can keep them off my homescreen, or from running in the background... and they don't take up too much room.

Honestly if their app is on the App Store China Mobile employees can make downloading it part of the activation process at the Store which some US carriers already do.

The issues probably have to do with subsidies and profits etc. The iPhone is already on the other carriers so it's not a China issue.

I assume China Mobile will be more interested in adding the iPhone with the low cost model available. That means a lower subsidy on their end and the potential for increase sales. Pretty much a win win for China Mobile, and I'm sure Tim Cook knew this was the last remaing piece of the China puzzle.

I think China Mobile might want a chunk of the app store's profits. Not many people know but, Google pays carriers a chunk of the Play Store profit (honestly don't know how its split). So I'm guessing China Mobile is saying "You can't use our network and our customer to make profits unless we get a cut of all those profits, at least 30% sounds good".